14 Killed in NYC Casino Bus Accident
Fourteen people died Saturday when a bus returning to New York City from a casino overturned on a highway and was sliced in half by the support pole for a large sign.
Fourteen people were killed about 5:30 a.m. Saturday when a semi-trailer in the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 (New England Thruway at the Hutchinson River Parkway) caused a bus driver also proceeding southbound to evade the semi-trailer truck, and lose control and hit a stanchion. The bus was on its side as it slid into the stanchion, which cut the bus into a top half and a bottom half. At least one passenger was decapitated.
Five people were critically injured, two suffered serious injuries and eleven were reported with minor injuries.
The truck either caused the bus to swerve or sideswiped the bus before the bus hit the stanchion. The truck driver fled the scene after the crash. Some reports say the truck clipped the World Wide Tour Bus from behind.
Saturday night, New York state police said they were questioning the driver of a tractor-trailer who had been in the vicinity of the pre-dawn crash. His tractor truck was found in Westchester County, north of New York City, and the trailer was found in Long Island.